A wide variety of electrical connectors have been designed for terminating flat cables or circuits. A typical connector for flat circuits includes a dielectric housing molded of plastic material, for instance. The housing has an elongated opening or slot for receiving an end of the flat circuit which has generally parallel, laterally spaced conductors exposed across the end. A plurality of terminals are mounted in the housing and are spaced laterally along the slot, with contact portions of the terminals engageable with the laterally spaced conductors of the flat circuit. An actuator often is movably mounted on the housing for movement between a first position whereat the flat circuit is freely insertable into the slot and a second position whereat the actuator clamps the circuit in the housing and biases the circuit against the contact portions of the terminals.
FIGS. 7 and 8 herein show a prior art flat circuit connector of the character described above. The connector includes a housing, generally designated 20, having a plurality of terminals, generally designated 22, mounted in the housing from the rear thereof. The housing is mounted on a printed circuit board (not shown) and is fabricated of dielectric plastic material. The housing has a slot 20a at the front thereof for receiving an end of a flat circuit in a circuit insertion direction as indicated by arrow “B”. The housing includes a rear portion 24b having a plurality of pairs of terminal-receiving passages 20c into which terminals 22 are mounted. Finally, the housing is elongated and includes a pair of walls or fixing arms 20d having fixing grooves 20e formed on the insides thereof. An elongated actuator, generally designated 24, is pivotally mounted on housing 20 by means of a pair of fixing protrusions 24a having pivot bosses 24b at opposite ends of the housing. The fixing protrusions are rotatably mounted in fixing grooves 20e formed inside arms 20d. A pair of locking protrusions 24c are formed at opposite ends of the elongated actuator at the front thereof. The locking protrusions are hooked against the front of the housing when the actuator is in a closed position as shown in FIG. 7.
A pair of substantially enclosed fitting nails 26 are mounted over generally inverted T-shaped mounting portions 20f of the housing in the direction of arrows “B”. The fitting nails are fabricated of metal material and are soldered to mounting pads on the printed circuit board to secure the connector to the board.
Actuator 24 is rotated 90° from its closed position shown in FIG. 7, to stand upright, and its rear end is inserted between fixing arms 20d of the housing. Fixing protrusions 24a are respectfully inserted into fixing grooves 20e inside arms 20d to fixed the actuator to the housing. This defines the open position of the actuator. While the actuator is in this open position, the end of the flat circuit is inserted into slot 20a in the direction of arrow “A”. The actuator then is rotated about pivot bosses 24b to the closed position shown in FIG. 7 to bias appropriate contacts on the bottom of the flat circuit against terminals 22.
The present invention is directed to improvements in a housing for flat circuit connectors as described above.